


meta essays

by imahira



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Canon - Anime, Canon - Manga, Canon - Video Game, Essays, Gen, M/M, Meta, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-04-06 05:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19055968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imahira/pseuds/imahira
Summary: chapters 1-2: imported essay on material added to the anime adaption of the Band of Seven arc, as it concerns Renkotsu, the validity of his viewpoint, and his relationship with Ginkotsu and the other members3: Newly translated material (by me) from extras in the wide-ban editions, volume 13-14, about the creation of the Band of Seven, plus bios of Kyoukotsu, Mukotsu, Suikotsu, Ginkotsu & Renkotsu (volume 14)4: two imported posts about Ginkotsu's mechanical body, karakuri robots, and technology in Japan's feudal era5: imported twitter thread about Bankotsu & Jakotsu's view of their second lives vs. Renkotsu's and Ginkotsu's6. fact and fiction on the Inuyasha wiki7. Newly translated material (by me) from extras in the wide-ban editions, volume 13: Bankotsu and Jakotsu's bios, plus a short discussion of historical homosexuality in Japan as it contrasts with its depiction inInuyasha8. Discussion of material from the mobile game Naraku's War





	1. March 13, 2014

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (posted 3/13/2014)

so errrr i noticed [this post](http://inu-fanon.tumblr.com/post/78486468822) about stuff that was added to the shichinintai arc in the anime and thought i’d add a couple of things since renkotsu and ginkotsu are pretty different in the anime and manga and i

let’s just leave that sentence there

 

Okay first off most of Ginkotsu’s personality…such as it is…is added in the anime, while in the manga he’s basically furniture after his body gets vaporized. The anime adds the scene where he looks at a butterfly and is offended when Bankotsu asks if he wants to eat it. His death scene is also expanded into going berserk and sacrificing himself to save Renkotsu instead of being killed almost immediately by Kouga.

There’s also that somewhat pointless scene where he destroys a bridge and then watches the monk and his disciple run away before just wandering off….okay.

The big thing with Renkotsu is that the anime adds a flashback of the Shichinintai before their death where he’s shown being very deferential to Bankotsu, which makes his character more of a formerly loyal follower who feels betrayed in his own right by Bankotsu’s willingness to let them all die again. When they meet up with Bankotsu for the first time, he volunteers that Mukotsu and Kyoukotsu have died, and is unsettled to learn that Bankotsu already knew and doesn’t show signs of being upset. Later he tries to question Bankotsu about Naraku and gets shut down, and again is visibly unhappy about it. In the manga it’s more like…he’s just a jerk.

He’s also much more friendly with Ginkotsu; in the manga he operates the cannons by himself, whereas in the anime he tells Ginkotsu when to fire (and then sometimes just goes ahead and does it himself because filler material is cruel and inconsistent). The scene where he speaks to Ginkotsu briefly in the forge is added, and when Ginkotsu dies he shows…well, a minor amount of concern. He’s later shown regretting that he didn’t add even more guns for Ginkotsu to miss with, and while he doesn’t say it outright he does [express ](http://bonerryu.tumblr.com/post/72472909785)[a kind of regret](http://bonerryu.tumblr.com/post/72472909785) over his death. As opposed to the manga where he just snatches the jewel shard and books it to safety. 

In all honesty the changes make the anime a little inconsistent; Renkotsu doesn’t care in the slightest when Inuyasha vaporizes Ginkotsu’s body, and then when he dies for real he’s upset for a few minutes and then is never shown caring again. In the preview for episode 117 Kagome says that Renkotsu is looking for a “battle of revenge” (弔い合戦) for Ginkotsu, but, oops, they forgot to put anything in the actual episode indicating that! They also added a scene of Renkotsu luring Inuyasha away from the cave with the exact trick Ginkotsu used on him previously, for no apparent reason except to show that Inuyasha has no long-term memory.

Look…a wizard did it.


	2. March 13, 2014

 

 

 

Okay ACTUALLY to be perfectly serious, I do think the anime adds a lot to this arc with the material they put in to pad it out. In the manga Renkotsu is basically just a huge douche, but  _in the anime_  he actually ends up showing more concern over the other members than ANY of the others (save Ginkotsu of course, but number-wise he does win).

Renkotsu’s still, of course, very much not a nice guy, and most likely he would have killed each of them if it came down to their life or his (yes, even Ginkotsu, I have to admit). His “concern”, so to speak, is self-serving–losing your fighting forces is no good when you’re the head strategist, and it’s also increasingly clear that that they’re dropping one by one, and he’s up on the chopping block at some point.

But it does add a lot of dimension to his conflict with Bankotsu–who still clearly likes his little brothers, but also isn’t too broken up about their second deaths. Bankotsu definitely has some conflicting feelings about dying again himself, but ultimately the most concern he shows is over Jakotsu’s death; and in that case the feeling I get is more that he’s upset because he knows Renkotsu did it, and he knows  _why_  he did it, and that reason goes against his own personal code.

In the anime Bankotsu has a private mourning ceremony for Mukotsu and Kyoukotsu, and in his conversation with Kikyo seems to imply that he feels his 2nd death is, like hers, somewhat inevitable–but he’s not going to sit back and let it happen. I suppose he feels that it’s up to each of the others to also do what they can in that regard  _for themselves_ , but it’s also pretty blatantly obvious that they are being whittled down one by one, and that is entirely part of Naraku’s plan. And he does nothing about that, nor does he seem to care. He even asks Jakotsu (in the manga and the anime) if he thinks they can trust Naraku. Jakotsu (who previously brought this up  _himself_  to Renkotsu) doesn’t know. Bankotsu himself is the only one who’s met Naraku. …Then he just drops that, forever, the way Jakotsu also seems to have stopped thinking about it? It’s kind of inconsistent. He is 17, I guess.

Renkotsu, on the other hand, is suspicious of Naraku before we even meet him; he’s already cooked up a plan to get Jakotsu out of the way so Ginkotsu can get Inuyasha over to the temple for questioning. And he’s also ready to hide the shards away for himself at this early date, so he’s basically committed fully to what eventually ends up being his plan.

_However:_  turning on the others who aren’t Bankotsu is not his first plan.He only starts collecting shards from his dead comrades after exhausting all his other avenues. Bankotsu takes the ones he stole fair and square from Kagome; Kouga is his next target, and Ginkotsu is 100% part of his “assets” column in that fight. Taking Ginkotsu’s shard, which would most likely be incredibly easy for a number of reasons, was not something he considered at any point in the anime; in the manga he seems to have snatched it pretty darn quick after Ginkotsu goes down, but it at least was not his first idea.

Next he goes after Kouga again, and fails again. Then meets up with Bankotsu, and has a private little freakout, and then goes after Inuyasha, again, and fails,  _again._  Now he’s up against the wall, but the first thing he asks Jakotsu is where Suikotsu’s shard went afterhe died. And that’s off the table too, so… Jakotsu has to go. And he does come up with this idea, again, pretty darn quick. Not a great guy. But he did  _try_  to avoid it. And hey, he apologizes (in the anime) to Jakotsu. Who doesn’t seem too upset.

And then the confrontation with Bankotsu. At this point I want to point out that the scenes added to the anime, of Renkotsu having more of a friendship with Ginkotsu; thinking about the other members of the group; being shown in flashbacks as a loyal member; and just generally worrying and panicking a great deal more than in the manga, all work to give him a lot more depth and frame this as a severe conflict in worldviews.

The Band of Seven is set up as a very hierarchical group. They call their superiors  _aniki_ , “big brother”, in a framework that echoes gangsters, _yakuza_ , just lowlifes in general. Judging from which members call each other  _aniki_ , it’s generally assumed that the hierarchy matched up to the order in which they die. Renkotsu is maybe not the physically strongest member, but as the strategist he answers only to Bankotsu in terms of who can boss who around. 

(As an aside, my feeling is that “aniki” doesn’t represent the strong emotional bond you would expect from its literal translation. I think it’s meant to go along with the criminal feeling their whole enterprise gives off. There’s obviously  _respect_ , and a few closer bonds within the group, but I actually get the sense they were not operating together for all that long. They fall apart very quickly under duress, for one, and Renkotsu in particular doesn’t seem to have much experience dealing with targets that actually fight back.)

And the flashback in particular makes it clear: Bankotsu is  _the boss_. He and Renkotsu both consider this a social contract, and Renkotsu previously had no intentions of “overstepping” him in rank. The Band of Seven is particularly notable in this regard because Kyoukotsu, the big huge guy, is the lowest ranked; he explicitly refers to all the others as his “big brothers” when he first shows up. Bankotsu is the youngest, not even an adult yet, and close to the smallest. But the other six all respect his strength, and defer to it. This is the inverse of what you’d expect, and that makes it clear exactly how strong Bankotsu is both in physical strength and in willpower. He’s fully capable of backing this contract up, if pressed.

But:

Renkotsu is done with that contract once it comes down to his life. He’s also done respecting Bankotsu; he brings up his age here for a reason. Bankotsu is no longer the fighter he respected and feared enough to call his superior; he’s  _younger_ , and he does not belong at the top of the totem pole. My guess would be that he considers their social contract already broken by virtue of the fact that Bankotsu is putting his life in danger.

Bankotsu, on the other hand, knows Renkotsu is up to something behind his back. But he still considers their contract in effect.

Again, my guess is that he feels he  _has the right_  to make this call on behalf of the other six; they joined his group and acknowledged him as their superior. He gets to decide who they work for and what they do. And it’s hard to argue that Renkotsu has the right to expect any level of personal consideration from his boss in a gang of murderous thugs who kill civilians for money. But, hey: what would you do? Give in and die for some guy you’ve never met, for absolutely no reason?

 

 

okay i’m gonna be real, i just lost my train of thought big time and i don’t really have any more to add. i guess what i want to stress, in the end, is that rengin saved the anime and made renkotsu a much better character, even though there are a bunch of points where they  _didn’t_  change stuff from the manga and his behavior ends up very inconsistent.

uhhhhhhh……….. bring it back, make it #confirmed, give me what i deserve for my 11 years of shipping in the face of A LOT OF BULLSHIT FROM THIS FANDOM, I HAVE TO SAY


	3. shiny sparkling new material (6/6/2019)

More facts of note based on extra material in the Inuyasha wide-bans:

* * *

_[from wide-ban volume 14:]_

__

_**Abilities: A Corps of Zombies Revived by Shikon Shards** _  
_The Band of Seven were all killed once and buried in a grave, but when they were given Shikon shards by Naraku, they were restored to flesh bodies by the shards' power. The seven of them remain corpses who are only connected to life by the shards--zombies, so to speak. Their nature is just as savage as in life. They love destruction and slaughter, and will mow down anyone they see who stands in their way._

[note: bourei is usually translated as ghost or something similar, but obviously they're closer to the zombie concept in English.]

 **_Bodies: Immortal Unless Their Shards Were Removed_ **  
_Their bodies, revived by Shikon shards, can be sliced and pierced, but will not sustain fatal wounds. Unless the shard embedded in their respective bodies is removed, they can't be destroyed. Due to the effect of the shards, they are stronger than they were in life. On the other hand, if their shard is removed, they'll return to bones even if they're completely unharmed so far._

__

**_Techniques: Varying According to the Individual_  
** _The techniques of the Band of Seven vary widely according to their physique, personality, and abilities. The strong among them specialize in hitting hard and fast, relying on physical strength, and the weaker ones with smaller bodies use poison. They make use of various techniques, but the ultimate goal is always the same: slaughter._

* * *

  

**_Souls: The Desires and Instincts of Killers_ **

**_Kyoukotsu: --A Bestial Appetite for Food and Destruction--_ **  
_Kyoukotsu's soul, as you can see from his giant mountain-like body, is made up of an appetite for food, and for destruction. Be it ogre or be it demon--whatever can be eaten, he eats it. Kyoukotsu has a simple philosophy in life: the strong eat the weak. And in order to demonstrate his own strength, he rampages through his surroundings and destroys them._

 **_Mukotsu: --An Inferiority Complex and Sadistic Tendencies--  
_ ** _Mukotsu's soul contains an inferiority complex over women not liking him because he's ugly, and sadistic tendencies, due to which he likes to immobilize women and slowly torture them to death. If the woman fights back, he becomes tearful and furious, so he's surprisingly sensitive. Mixing a variety of poisons to obtain different effects shows an inquisitive mind, but the goal is murder, so his soul is stained pitch black._

[note: I'm not sure why Kyoukotsu and Mukotsu specifically have such sassy profiles, but after this they get much more businesslike.]

_**Suikotsu: --A Heart Wavering Between Good and Evil--** _  
_Even while he was alive, Suikotsu's soul was split in two, between a Suikotsu with the heart of a virtuous doctor, and a Suikotsu with the heart of a savage cutthroat. The two Suikotsus live in the same body. The killer is aware of what he's doing while he's the doctor, and the doctor is aware of what he's doing while he's the killer. But the suppressed personality can't interfere with the actions of the surface personality. When he was revived he was the doctor with the good heart, because of Mount Hakurei's holy grounds. As the doctor, he protected a village, but as the Shikon shard became sullied, the killer Suikotsu has become stronger. But the doctor Suikotsu's good heart is still there, suffering..._

* * *

**_Ginkotsu: --A Machine Whose Only Purpose Is Battle--_ **

_Originally Ginkotsu, fully stocked with weapons, could be termed "superhuman", but his form was still recognizable as a person. He spoke with actual words, and seemed to have a mind of his own. But after his body was cut to pieces by Inuyasha, he was remodeled by Renkotsu into a form that can't be called "human". He has steel wheels and rushes [forward] using iron hoes. A cannon on his back can fire at targets. Renkotsu is the one who operates the cannon. [Ginkotsu] trusts both Bankotsu and Renkotsu, and doesn't hesitate to be of use to them. He casts aside his human heart, and becomes a weapon._

 

**_Renkotsu: --Ambition Coupled With Cunning--_ **

_Among the Band of Seven, full of people who spent their time fighting based on instinct, Renkotsu is the only one given to thinking. Still, he's no different from the other members in his cruel, warlike disposition. Instead of using his body, brute strength, or skill with a sword to fight, he uses a variety of weapons to fight, like dynamite or spewing flame. He's more a strategist than a warrior or a soldier. Renkotsu was the one who remodeled Ginkotsu over and over until he ended up like a tank. As part of the Band of Seven, he serves as Bankotsu's adviser, being the one to come up with strategies instead of Bankotsu, who isn't good at thinking about complicated things._

_He also gives instructions to Jakotsu and Suikotsu when they act as a team, functioning as a commander. He kneels [in deference] to Bankotsu, who's younger than him, serving as his adviser. However, in the depths of his heart, he doesn't like going along with his actions. While he calls Bankotsu "Big Brother" [out loud], he calls him "brat" in his head, and his aim is to change their [respective] status. To obtain more strength than Bankotsu, he steals the collected Shikon shards, and lures his comrades into actions that benefit him, revealing his cunning side. He'll even betray his comrades so that he alone can survive. His ruthless soul is stained black._

[note: The different blackness of Mukotsu and Renkotsu's souls is pitch black for Mukotsu, and a kind of unclean, dirty black for Renkotsu.]

* * *

  _[interview corner with Takahashi:]_

 

 

> **The Savage Souls of the Band of Seven: part 1 [volume 13]**

**_Fun Creating the Band of Seven Members_ **  
_Arc-wise, the Band of Seven are a journey with a destination, right?_ _I decided to make some characters to liven up the story of the journey to Mount Hakurei._ _And numbers-wise, if I have there be seven of them, I can stagger their deployment. So it ended up like that. I don't do "teams" often, but thinking up the Band of Seven members was really fun. I didn't do any design sketches in particular, though. But speaking of [character] designs, Ginkotsu was very fun. To me, at least._

_**Bankotsu, the Boss Vying With Inuyasha**  
I came up with the members' stories one at a time. Bankotsu was first, but he's the character who shows up last. That being the case, I thought he should be young and cool. Since he's the boss, more or less. I was careful that the readers wouldn't go, "*This* guy...?" when he showed up. Also, he has to be strong since he'll be vying with Inuyasha. Banryuu, the huge weapon he swings with one hand--I figured it had to be something on that scale!_

_To distinguish him from the other members, I wanted to give him the most straightforward weapon among the others, who all have strange, extremely specialized ones, and make him the type who fights in a straightforward way. Inuyasha's that type as well. The feats-of-strength type, I guess? And that makes him the one to go up against Inuyasha, you know? The strength-type, the "boss" personality--that's Bankotsu._

_**Jakotsu: Originally a Woman**  
As for Jakotsu, I was originally planning to have one of them be a woman. Having a woman fight with Inuyasha or the others... it just felt like, "Something's not right here." So with one thing and another, he turned into the kind of person he is. That way he was a kind of character I'd never drawn before, which was fun. Speaking of Jakotsu, I tried making a Jakotsu-tou out of paper. I wanted to see how it would move. I made a bunch of crescent moon shapes and connected them. Then I tried it out in real life. With Jakotsu-tou, I wanted to try drawing a weapon [I'd/you'd] never really seen before. _

_Inuyasha was Jakotsu's type, but Sesshoumaru wasn't his type. Partly because [Sesshoumaru] almost killed him. Maybe in his own way, he was an excellent judge of character. I guess somehow* Bankotsu and Jakotsu got along well. They were pretty popular, and they made a good pair._

[note: *I'm not sure if that 'somehow' is within the story, or her saying that it kind of happened somehow as she was writing the story.]

* * *

 

 

> **The Savage Souls of the Band of Seven: part 2 [volume 14]**

_**Purposely Arranged as Team vs. Team** _  
_To me, at least, the Band of Seven arc has a special feeling to it. You can sum it up as "team vs. team". As far as Suikotsu goes, I purposely drew [him as being] such a great guy that it could fool you even with him having a split personality. At the end of the day, the members of the Band of Seven were in opposition to Inuyasha's group, but Suikotsu might have been a perfectly-suited opponent for Kikyou. Ultimately he died as a result of Kikyou firing an arrow into his Shikon shard, but I think that really was the right thing for her to do._

_The first to appear, Kyoukotsu, was killed instantly, but that was the whole point of the character. What you'd call the shortcut, someone to have it be said of him, "He was the weakest out of all of us." (laughs) [I thought] there should be an empty threat. That's all he was. Mukotsu was the same. He made his exit fairly quickly. I didn't really want that kind of pervert type around for too long, you know?_

_Ginkotsu... When I first drew him, I had a lot of different ideas. Maybe that led to the remodeling. But starting with his first appearance, I guess I was thinking, "I want to turn this guy into a vehicle." With Renkotsu, I wanted one like him in the group, the treacherous kind. The type aiming to overthrow the leader. I thought having someone like that was better than a cozy little group that gets along well._

_**The Ideals of Villains**  
I don't think anyone in the Band of Seven was looking that far into the future... Villains like that were what I wanted to have. Before their death especially, they wouldn't really have had any plans. I feel like they were acting because they were revived, and given temporary goals related to defeating Inuyasha. Also, it was probably more that they liked fighting rather than because they'd been given instructions._

_**Admiring Crews of Allies** _  
_Something I admired was a Shounen Jump-style crew of allies, the style of one-at-a-time defeats that Kurumada Masami-sensei does*. That's really fun. I like reading it, but just once I wanted to try drawing it. I know it's hard, though. Still, I thought I could give it a try, and give it my all._

 

_[*Takahashi is affiliated with Shounen Sunday, a magazine put out by Shogakukan, a rival to Jump's publisher Shueisha. Kurumada Masami is most famous for Saint Seiya.]_

 

So according to Takahashi, Ginkotsu was always intended to become a "vehicle" or a "weapon". This tracks with the things that were added in the anime: his self-sacrifice and numerous instances where Renkotsu tells him to shoot something and he responds verbally, where in the manga Renkotsu just pulls the string himself. In the manga, his only personal contribution after becoming a tank is saving Bankotsu from Inuyasha's attack; the anime writers chose to repeat this and combine it with Miroku's attempt to sacrifice himself for Sango just a few episodes later (sorry but it's true). This may have been to fill out time, to give the animators something fun to do, or an active choice to flesh the two of them out as characters, since they're the main beneficiaries of the anime's added content, Bankotsu, Jakotsu and Suikotsu already being pretty well served for development. (In fact, Bankotsu's character is severely altered by the decision to give him demonic powers, and his fight with Inuyasha is much better in the manga.)

Essentially, while the basic theme of their characters (sacrifice and treachery) remain the same in the anime adaptation, the anime chose to add material that almost completely reverses the motivation behind those themes. Instead of abdicating most of his agency to Bankotsu and Renkotsu, Ginkotsu's final moment is one he actively chooses. In the manga he's killed off almost incidentally and Renkotsu is notably unmoved by his death, especially for someone who must have spent quite a while keeping this guy alive. The anime makes his death almost a return to his original state, where he was acting on his own, and Renkotsu shows moments of actual concern and regret.

Meanwhile, Renkotsu in the manga is set up as the worst of the worst, the member who doesn't even share the same honor-amongst-thieves that the other mass murderers abide by. In the anime, though, he's given scenes where he tries to appeal to Bankotsu about his concerns and is brushed off, a distinct difference from the manga where he jumps immediately to murdering all his friends. He shows regret over Ginkotsu's death, pulls back from a confrontation when he's concerned that Suikotsu is reaching a breaking point, and apologizes to a more conscious Jakotsu despite orchestrating his death. He's increasingly unhinged in a way that plays less as the anger and resentment from the manga and more as panic--it also seems to correspond with Ginkotsu's death, which has much more personal weight for him in the anime thanks to the added scenes establishing an actual friendship between them.

Interestingly, he doesn't make any attempt to stop Ginkotsu from blowing himself up, even though he's been giving orders nonstop through the whole arc and Ginkotsu has pretty much been demoted to his possession at this point. Ginkotsu is his primary asset here in his plot against Bankotsu, the only one he sees as more useful to him alive and doesn't need to manipulate--he hasn't taken Ginkotsu's jewel shard, and doesn't seem to have been planning on it, though Ginkotsu might have come up on the chopping block later on in the manga. But in the anime, their relationship changes at the end from the strict user/used model it's been since their first appearance, and Renkotsu is both concerned for Ginkotsu in a way he wasn't during the confrontation with Inuyasha at the temple, and unable to control Ginkotsu's actions. It's a glimpse of something more human in their relationship--ironically enough at this point--and it marks the one and only time one of these seven killers decides to die to save a life instead of taking it.

Volumes 13 and 14 of the wide-bans end with new art of a pensive Inuyasha, troubled by the two significant relationships within the Band of Seven, perhaps appropriately for the intentional close friendship Takahashi wrote, and its darker mirror that was left to the anime to flesh out.


	4. April 8/July 16, 2016

_[April 8, 2016:]_

ALSO, on a more educational note: once you accept that Ginkotsu can keep himself alive though sheer determination and the power of love, the rest is actually pretty simple to explain.

_Inuyasha_  takes place during a period where Japan was having increased contact with European traders. In particular, the island of Tanegashima was where Portuguese traders, in 1543, brought European firearms into the country for the first time. According to the  _Inuyasha_  profile book, Renkotsu picked up firearms that were manufactured there and remodeled them into cannons for Ginkotsu to use.

(Note that I think it’s  _technically_  possible that, in the manga, he only picked these firearms up after their revival? All the flashbacks where we see Ginkotsu using the same weapons as the present were added by the anime–but then, they also added Jakotsu’s line in episode 104 about how Renkotsu is helping out Ginkotsu, who needs  _new_  guns and gunpowder, etc., in a way that’s kind of like, “Oh, you know how he is.” Who can say.)

Blacksmithing of course was already well-known in Japan long before Europeans arrived, but it’s a pretty safe guess that Renkotsu using it to create that kind of huge machinery, as well as Takahashi’s idea for a cyborg, specifically, in this setting, was tied to this introduction of matchlock guns and so on. Ginkotsu is noted to be “a master of” all kinds of weapons, so even without [the background the anime staff thought up for the drama CD](http://inu-drama.tumblr.com/post/50118105792/shichinintai-10), we can assume that the arrival of the matchlock gun was a  _very_  big event for him.

AND, despite the fact that this blog is devoted entirely to making fun of them, we must remember that Renkotsu and Ginkotsu are (I cannot believe I am typing these words) very good at what they do. Geniuses, in fact, since we can only assume that each member of the Band of 7 was famous enough on their own to attract Bankotsu’s attention in the first place. If their technology doesn’t seem to fit into the time period, well…. apparently they invented it?!?!? Because they believe in progress, and the advancement of human knowledge, and also because they are huge nerds who would be hot-gluing steampunk cogs onto their Google Cardboard prototypes if they were alive today.

* * *

 

_[July 16, 2016:]_

TIME FOR ANOTHER [HISTORY LESSON](http://bonerryu.tumblr.com/post/142473254037) because i just remembered something from the guidebook that a japanese fan posted on twitter!

In Japanese, apparently, the Ginkotsu mechanism is called the Ginkotsu  _karakuri_.  _Karakuri_  is variously translated as “mechanism”, “clockwork”, “wind-up”, etc., depending on circumstance, and basically all three words describe some part of it.  _[Karakuri ningyou](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FKarakuri_puppet&t=NDkzYTE1NDE2NjAxZGVhNWRmYzg2MjI4YTRkOTg3MTZkNjE0Mzk1OSxLTHJ3RVQ5WQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AbmuqIqlYNPzrJZhT5c5bVg&p=https%3A%2F%2Fbonerryu.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F147048382041%2Ftime-for-another-history-lesson-because-i-just&m=1) _(wind-up/clockwork/etc. dolls) are a kind of artistry that became popular in Japan between the 17th and 19th century. Smaller ones could do things like serving tea, [shooting an arrow](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Di5zYK9FxORI&t=NTQ0NzgzYWZkOTQxMGYwNzA1MGU0NGU0NTZhOTU2Yzc3ZjQyOTUyYSxLTHJ3RVQ5WQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AbmuqIqlYNPzrJZhT5c5bVg&p=https%3A%2F%2Fbonerryu.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F147048382041%2Ftime-for-another-history-lesson-because-i-just&m=1), or [other clever tricks](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tofugu.com%2Fjapan%2Fkarakuri-ningyo-robots%2F&t=NTJiYjgxOTU5MDZhODI3ZDZmMGE2NjVlZmY5NDc3Nzk4MzNlNGYyYyxLTHJ3RVQ5WQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AbmuqIqlYNPzrJZhT5c5bVg&p=https%3A%2F%2Fbonerryu.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F147048382041%2Ftime-for-another-history-lesson-because-i-just&m=1) to amuse humans. Others were used in plays, or on top of floats in festivals. Ginkotsu basically starts out as a very large  _zashiki karakuri_ , and then upgrades into one of those  _[dashi karakuri](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.karakuri.info%2Fdashi%2F&t=YWNlMThiNjM1MjI2YWVlODYzYjYyYzJhOTBmMjgzYmFiNWFlMzdjNyxLTHJ3RVQ5WQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AbmuqIqlYNPzrJZhT5c5bVg&p=https%3A%2F%2Fbonerryu.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F147048382041%2Ftime-for-another-history-lesson-because-i-just&m=1)_ that might be used on a float… except in this case, the float itself is more the  _karakuri_  part. And instead of a doll there’s just some weird guy with a bunch of guns.

The springs and gears on the inside of the doll run along the same lines as a clock’s inner workings. So, as much as I make fun of Ginkotsu for being made out of clockwork, there’s actually nothing strange about the fact that his body can move! He’s [at least a century](http://inu-fanon.tumblr.com/post/66527103547) ahead of the times, but he’s operating through means that were very much possible long before the modern concept of the high-tech cyborg came along.

One more thing of note is that in the manga, he’s significantly lower-tech (and scrawnier, too); you can actually see a bunch of scratches and such on his arm and armor. Much more of a DIY project. His fighting scenes are also a lot shorter and he doesn’t go around launching….

…any of this stuff (what in god’s name….). He just bursts out of the woods to attack Inuyasha and the others directly, and later on puts up zero resistance against Kouga. No self-destruct devices or transformation sequences. The animators had maybe a little too much fun getting to draw heavy machinery.

There are of course no records (…yet) of human beings BECOMING  _karakuri_  dolls, since, you know, we have nerves and muscles and organs and all that good stuff.  _Karakuri_  dolls are therefore limited to the few simple motions they were built to perform; but, if there’s one place in the world where Ginkotsu could dream of growing up to become a robot, it’s definitely Japan.

_The Puppet Princess_  ( _Karakuri no Kimi_ ), by Fujita Kazuhiro, also contains a character who pursues strength by merging himself into a  _karakuri_  doll, with significantly more body horror-y results. And Fujita, a Shonen Sunday regular along with Takahashi Rumiko, names a short story of hers about a youkai as an inspiration early in his career. So, it all comes full circle in the end.

Though in that case, the springs are made from human flesh; I doubt Renkotsu would stoop to anything that low-tech.

  


Look at them, they are so proud of themselves. They’re a little walking history lesson on things that are actually less impossible than you might think. Renkotsu invented  _karakuri_  technology a century early and took it to a level that’s still not possible today. All so Ginkotsu could keep shooting at things and missing. Dump your bf’s  _ass_  if he doesn’t do that for you.


	5. February 6, 2018 (twitter thread)

OK SO THE THING IS I DON'T THINK bankotsu would have rly have been pissed about jakotsu dying if it hadn't been renkotsu who did it, bc b&j had both kind of accepted that was how this whole thing was gonna end (not that he wouldn't care at all, but he wouldn't see it as unfair)

while conversely renkotsu (to the extent that he's SHOWN being upset about ginkotsu, which i think is not really consistent w/ the changes in his characterization in the anime) would have been upset regardless of how it happened...

...but that's not because he's a nicer person or anything, it's more a selfish view of ginkotsu as something that is, immutably, supposed to be accessible to him (as weapon, friend, w/e)

and ultimately it's pretty clear he would have valued himself over ginkotsu if it came down to it. & then ginkotsu is between these two attitudes: we KNOW he considered it fundamentally Wrong for renkotsu to die again, but he doesn't seem to have that same concern for himself

ultimately though i think that's more similar to renkotsu's position; they just happen to value the same individual instead of both putting themself first. and this isn't to say "oh they cared about each other more than b&j"...

i just think r&g's motivations r more understandable as human ones. but bankotsu & jakotsu are also way less hypocritical about thinking they have the right to live (twice!!!) but no one else has the right to fight back, like... lol

also when they attack the castle.... i think bankotsu is more pissed because they were ganged up on, not necessarily because they died at all. at least that's what makes sense

i've said before that genuinely i do think renkotsu was pretty much justified in abandoning all loyalty to someone who was just cool with all of them dying again...

but that also kind of proves how selfish his attachment to ginkotsu is... he's an asset and not a source of jewel shards bc renkotsu has 100% confidence that he'll agree with him on everything

i didn't mention the other three but i don't think anyone really cares

like those are the only 4 who really personally give a shit about each other. but uhhh i guess kyoukotsu and mukotsu were not riding that acceptance-of-death train and of the two kyoukotsu manages to go out w/ a little more dignity. mukotsu... sucks

suikotsu izhhzhzhhzzzzzzzzzzz


	6. Discussion of facts on the Inuyasha wiki (April 12, 2016)

okay i was surveying the inuyasha wiki and i just…. want to point out some inaccuracies in the area of “i don’t know where the fuck this came from, at all”

FOR EXAMPLE:

Bankotsu’s height and weight are not given anywhere in the profile book or in the series itself. Searching for “蛮骨” plus “169” turns up zero results in Japanese, and the only English result is the wiki page itself. Just for starters.

OKAY SO, to continue: some of the Bo7 have their “chronological age” given on the wiki for some reason. This doesn’t really mean anything, in my opinion, since they spent those 10 years in between as rotting corpses. It’s technically been 27 years since Bankotsu was born, yes, but… he’s really not 27 in any sense. The  **height and weight**  given are also completely made up. They may be estimated based on the height of other characters, but the thing is:  **the profile book doesn’t give any other character’s height or weight either**. The wiki  _gives_  a lot of heights and weights, but I’m pretty sure they’re all made up or guesses.

  


For example. There’s no actual official statement on this as far as I know, and the confusion seems to be mostly on the English-speaking side of fandom.  I know I’ve searched for a Japanese source on Sesshoumaru’s height in the past and found nothing except some fan estimates.

So, to sum up:

* * *

The profile book does give the origin of all four of the  ~~important~~ higher-ranked Bo7 members as “East country.” Again, no heights are provided.

Renkotsu’s eyes do appear to be black when they’re represented as dots, but when he’s in disguise mode:

they’re extremely brown.

* * *

As an aside, “Jyakotsu” and “Jakotsu” are both valid romanizations, but they would be pronounced exactly the same, and in my opinion Jakotsu represents that better. The Japanese syllable “ja” is written by adding a small  _ya_  (や) to a  _ji_  (じ): じゃ. Sometimes there’s a bit more of an audible “ya” in the sound than others, but most people would not romanize it as “jya” in a current English translation.

(And, the gender thing: yes, he likes men; yes, he wears lipstick and flowery clothes; yes, he’s voiced by women in both Japanese and English; yes, there are 1000 different comments strewn across the internet about how confusing he is XD. Jakotsu is a man. He’s openly disgusted by women, and he uses the very masculine personal pronoun “ore”. To be entirely blunt, his role in the story is that of a threatening homophobic stereotype, not a threatening transphobic stereotype.)

_[note from 2019: something I missed here is that Jakotsu's age is actually given as **20** in the profiles book.]_

As to the eye color, uhhh… I know dark colors are always a point of contention, but to me, Jakotsu’s eyes look pretty consistently black.

* * *

  
  
  


My personal call would be

Evil form: black hair, black eyes, very much NOT pale skin

Good form: brown hair, grey eyes, pale skin

Merged form: brown hair, grey eyes, skin color that…. honestly that depends on the lighting.

* * *

To be pedantic, 骨 means “skill” when it’s read as  _kotsu_. But the pun is pretty obvious.

Also, no one cared enough to list Ginkotsu’s hair/skin/eye color. I’m pretty sure the hair is fake anyway though. BUT they did care enough to estimate an age… for which there is no real evidence. My personal guess would also be mid-30s, but technically speaking all three of the lower-ranked Bo7  _could_  be in their 20s. Or they could be remarkably well-preserved 80-year-olds.

* * *

Again, the profile books doesn’t give him an age. Nor does it give him a weight or an incredibly specific height. And the eyes… I mean I guess they could be brown? They’re kinda just dots though so I would say black.

* * *

  


Hair color, you could bicker over green versus blue-green, but let’s be real, no one cares that much about Kyoukotsu. Skin color… as you can see, that depends a lot on the quality of the screencaps you’re looking at. Personally the only way I’d describe it is “dead-looking”.

Also they didn’t bother making up a height for him because…… lol. Sometimes he’s taller than the trees, but in that one official illustration of the Bo7 together, he’s about twice Bankotsu’s height. No one cared that much.

Anyway that’s my story.

OH YEAH and they all have these things on their pages; unless I’m missing something big, all 7 “tattoo” meanings are bullshit. I’m not sure why there would be a way to tattoo “poison” or “deception” specifically onto your face. (Also, the face things are not confirmed to be tattoos or anything else.)


	7. Jakotsu & Bankotsu material from wide-ban 13 (6/11/19)

_**Bankotsu--A Wild Soul That Trusts Only Strength** _

  
_**\--A Rebellious Heart That Yields To None--** _  
_The Band of Seven have never been bound by any lord. They've fought for hire on battlefield after battlefield. Their leader, Bankotsu, can't stand to stay in the same place, and is always looking for new battlefields. He has no interest in social status or political power, and even when daimyou offer to make him their vassal, he brushes it off. Kill anyone who holds you down. That is Bankotsu's way of life._

_**-A Heart Exulting In Each Battle-**  
Bankotsu has no interest in the weak. He seeks out combat with the strong, and that alone. Almost no humans qualify as opponents, even when he takes them on by the score. Things are settled in one swing of his huge halberd. So over the course of several fights with Inuyasha, Bankotsu was stirred to the depths of his soul. Though it was a battle on Naraku's orders, his spirit was inflamed each time they crossed swords._

[note: word used for halberd = 大鉾, daihoko]

_**-The Pride of a Leader Who Keeps His 'Little Brothers' In Mind*-**  
To Bankotsu, who leads the Band of Seven, even those older than him like Renkotsu or Suikotsu are his "little brothers".** He's accordingly watchful of them, so if one is killed, he'll take up arms for vengeance.*** On the other hand, since he prizes unity between comrades, he has no mercy for traitors. Bankotsu controls the pack of thugs in the Band of Seven with force. He doesn't say it in so many words, but he has one iron-clad rule: Death to traitors. This is the unwritten law that each member of the Band of Seven knows to be true._

 

*Note: 弟分, otoutobun, literally means someone in the position of a little brother. It's used by gangsters and lowlifes to talk about their underlings or younger colleagues. Bankotsu is referred to in this omake not as 大兄貴 (oo-aniki), but as 親分 (oyabun): someone in the position of father, i.e., the big boss of some less-than-savory group.

Other words used for him in the omake are 頭目 (toumoku) and 首領 (shuryou), neither of which have any family-related words in them, and, oddly, "oo-aniki" is nowhere to be seen in his part of the profiles. In canon, as far as I know, he's only called oo-aniki. To me, this seems like a better fit with the use of otoutobun, while 子分 (kobun) fits with oyabun--but the omake chose to pair otoutobun and oyabun, with no aniki or kobun in sight.

**An extremely odd statement, since... *everybody* in the Band of Seven is older than him, and Renkotsu and Suikotsu are a strange pair to single out by name when it's Renkotsu and Jakotsu who make up the bulk of his interactions. Maybe Jakotsu seems less worthy of age-related respect to whoever wrote this.

***um... not sure what to do with this. Maybe the assistant writing this just read the part at the end where he tells Inuyasha he's going to fight him for revenge, and not the rest of the arc? Because he's notably unconcerned with chasing down Kouga, Sesshoumaru, Kouga again, Kikyou, or (COUGHS) Jakotsu, who technically is the one to snuff Suikotsu out. In fact the funniest part of the whole arc is him trying to get "revenge" on Inuyasha, who killed *none* of them.

* * *

_**Jakotsu--A Cruel Soul Coexisting With Innocence** _

  
_**-An Honest Heart With No Trace of Duplicity-** _  
_Jakotsu is fundamentally honest with no hidden agenda. In that respect alone, he has a virtuous heart. He's very expressive, smiling when he's having fun and getting indignant over things he doesn't like. For good and for ill, Jakotsu holds nothing back. He expresses all his feelings as he feels them, and he follows Bankotsu's instructions as his elder brother as a matter of course. Jakotsu is genuine, and somehow different from the rest of the Band of Seven, who have their own agendas. For this reason, Bankotsu trusts him the most. He's a young man in appearance, but he's like a young boy in his honesty and innocence._

 _**-Inclined Towards The Same Sex-** _  
_Jakotsu has no interest in women. Rather, he seems to hate them. Men, on the other hand, interest him very much. In particular, he was very excited and full of imagination before meeting Inuyasha. And when they actually meet, he spontaneously cries out, "Cuuuute!" with his eyes sparkling. For Jakotsu, his type of man makes for the ideal partner in battle. He starts the fight gleefully. But just because he's gay**, that doesn't mean any man will do. Kouga wasn't quite his type, and Sesshoumaru, while attractive, just didn't do it for him._

 

[**The word used here is _danshoku_ , also read as _nanshoku_. Its use here seems to correspond to "gay" in the modern sense, but the historical term has ties to institutional pederasty. Something to note before drawing too many conclusions from that is that despite being a sadistic murderer, Jakotsu shows no interest in Kohaku despite several interactions, and describes those he's murdered as 男 specifically: men. The text of _Inuyasha_ conforms more to modern standards of homosexuality as its own separate orientation, where Jakotsu is clearly differentiated from other men. Renkotsu's response when Jakotsu suggests he might be interested in Inuyasha ("Keep talking nonsense and I'll pull out your tongue.") matches with contemporary attitudes and the need to distance oneself from the very concept of homosexual attraction. In Japan's actual feudal period, there would be no reason for him to respond so vehemently. In fact, if you accept the idea that Renkotsu used to be a monk, he'd be the last character to have this reaction, since monastic pederasty was one of the two main branches of institutionalized pederasty.

Also, the "effeminate" partner in _nanshoku_ fiction would be the younger one, by virtue of not having grown into manhood yet, not a man of 20 who would be expected to fill the manly role himself. And by _nanshoku_ standards Sesshoumaru, around Jakotsu's age physically, would be too old a target for any kind of attraction. (There were, of course, adult men who engaged in relationships with other adult men, but this was seen as unusual.) So there's no real tie between historical _nanshoku_ practices and the word's use here. Jakotsu's portrayal borrows from much more recent tropes, and there's nothing marking him as interested in teenagers specifically. Inuyasha and Kouga are the equivalent of 15, but they're essentially "anime teenagers" whose age is unimportant except that their lack of experience is useful for beefing up the story as they learn things for the first time.]

 

**_-A Selfishly Cruel Nature-_ **  
_Innocent and honest Jakotsu may be, but he places no value on the lives of others, and he has sadistic tendencies, meaning he wants to torture those he loves. He cuts down people who are worthless to him with a single stroke, and kills the men he likes slowly. With his utter selfishness and capriciousness, Jakotsu's soul is stained black..._

_[note: The word for "sadistic tendencies" is also used in Mukotsu's profile, and the blackness of Jakotsu's soul is the same type as Renkotsu's: a dirty, unclean black as opposed to Mukotsu's pitch-black.]_


	8. discussion of material in Naraku's War (9/7/19)

Inuyasha: Naraku's War (犬夜叉-奈落之戰) is a mobile game based on Inuyasha that was released in May of this year. It's designed as an MMORPG that follows the events of canon. The game was developed in Taiwan and so far is only available to phones located in Taiwan, but it's possible to play it elsewhere using QooApp. The developers managed to obtain an official license from Takahashi, and are supposedly seeking licensing in the People's Republic of China. Takahashi was consulted for development, and content within the game presumably has her seal of approval, however, Naraku's War follows the anime timeline and eliminates some of the early stories set in the present day.

So far Bankotsu, Renkotsu, Jakotsu, Suikotsu and Kyoukotsu have been made playable characters. Models for Ginkotsu and Mukotsu were added recently as bosses. Certain characters will give you side quests every day to raise their affection points, but at the moment Bankotsu and Renkotsu are the only ones of the Band of Seven to offer these. Renkotsu's in particular offer some significant Content so I'm going to give a rundown of those.

* * *

  
**Renkotsu Quest 1** (from my twitter, July 7):

wtf he dmed me... why haven't jaken or kohaku sent me anything even though i've had them way longer

ANYWAY they wrote game-original backstory????? in this he was a former military adviser. you craft one (1) gun and then bankotsu & jakotsu show up to recruit him

you can answer something similar to the drama cd's "what's so special about me" but it only gets you 1 heart.

then jakotsu makes fun of him for being scared and he tells them that they would have been scared of him (citation needed) back when he was a military adviser.  
also he has the WORST kind of sidequest that makes you do minigames with a like 3 second timer

renkotsu says at this point YEARS passed (???????). then he remembers they died and is like "damn that sucked"

in more important news my jaken is now an sr

_[further images omitted for being fuckoff huge]_

forgot to mention that when they pick renkotsu up, jakotsu asks if they can get a handsome one next time. just owned right in front of his face

* * *

  **Renkotsu Quest 2** (from my twitter, July 8):

renkotsu dmed me again today but he's the ONLY character i have who's done that, other than the 5 mains. what's goin on here. am i finally being rewarded for my years of service in the inuyasha fandom mines

renkotsu, expressionless: life is but a fleeting dream  
me: damn... it really is

why is this dumbass under constant assault from rolling boulders? this is the second side quest involving them (also THANKS FORCED ANGLED PERSPECTIVE DURING THIS STAGE for making it way harder???) [image omitted]

also why does he start every sidequest running on foot even though i HAVE A MOUNT? sorry it's not ginkotsu i guess. i'm doing my damn best

my horse mount texting renkotsu at 4am

_[NOTE: this quest is just about Renkotsu making weapons for the Bo7 to use and stupidly delivering them to Bankotsu, despite being suspicious of this whole deal ever since they were resurrected. OK. good planning_ _.]_

* * *

**Renkotsu Quest 3** (from my mental breakdown, July 22):

AAAAAAFHHFHFJVKVJCVKB!!!!!!!!!!!

This MUST be reported indeed ( I don’t think that’s actually what he’s saying in the second half)

okay so anyway this sidequest recreates ginkotsu blowing himself up and renkotsu looking for other jewel shards, except this time renkotsu SAYS "ginkotsu sacrificed himself for me" and instead of his underground dungeon he's just sitting in some bushes

then inuyasha zooms in and starts whaling on you hilariously. once you beat him you can decide if renkotsu fights bankotsu or looks for more shards (+1 heart for that, idk about the other option yet)  
obviously i seized the chance to finally tell him "get more shards first idiot"

*renkotsu crying like ralph in lord of the flies when he realizes piggy was too good for him, and the only good person on that hateful disgusting island*

* * *

**Bankotsu Quest 1** (from my twitter, July 19):

I got Bankotsu and.... question mark

yeah so this sidequest is extremely wild  
bankotsu lights a bunch of fires around a bandit hideout or w/e, then goes THROUGH THE WELL???? to get medicine from kagome for the oppressed villagers

i guess this is what happens when you become a playable character but ...question mark

are the others also heroes of justice now because idk how that's gonna go  
also they added kageroumaru/juuroumaru as playable apparently (crickets)

 

[NOTE: His other quest is basically just reenacting his introduction in the anime.]

* * *

 

 **CONCLUSIONS:** Both Renkotsu and Bankotsu are significantly softened in the game; Bankotsu in particular continues the anime's problem of not really knowing what to do with him, since picking on the weak is HIS JOB DESCRIPTION--the Bo7 textually, in canon, slaughter entire villages including women and children in very painful ways, and even if they only fought real armies, his group still consists of:

Renkotsu: deliberately incapacitates enemies and targets them their weakest moments, slaughters a temple full of unarmed monks

Jakotsu: tortures men for sexual gratification, ready to kill children

Suikotsu: willing to at least try killing children in his Bo7 personality

Ginkotsu:                   doesn't really do anything, tbh

Mukotsu: paralyzes women and rapes them

Kyoukotsu: wanders around shoving wildlife into his mouth like popcorn

Why did you kill the butterfly, Mr. Hero-to-the-Weak Bankotsu?? Why did you kill the butterfly????

 

RENKOTSU's backstory is both inconsistent with the drama CD's version (in which Kyoukotsu and Mukotsu are already members when he joins) and with the idea that he was once a monk. I suppose he could have been through training and left? This leaves us with no real reason for him to shave his head. t's also... inconsistent with itself, since Bankotsu is supposed to be 17 in canon, yet somehow YEARS PASS after Renkotsu joins up with them here (this is explicitly describing the time before their execution). I guess it's now the closest thing to canon, though.

The most worthwhile addition here is the scene where he talks about Ginkotsu, which, obviously I would think that, but also I really do think it's more consistent with his portrayal in the anime. (See earlier chapters for the explanation of why I think the anime added just enough to make his character kind of nonsensical.)

Also of note: Jakotsu's interest in men is not censored, but the items you give him to raise affection are the items given to women, and in his bathing animation (...yeah they have those*) he's submerged up to the neck. Depictions of homosexuality are not illegal in Taiwan, where the developers are, but they are in mainland China, so I suspect the game is trying to make things a little ambiguous to avoid licensing issues there.

 

*note: Kyoukotsu and Suikotsu are not able to bathe.


End file.
